Jump to content

John Carmack: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Added MegaTexture to Technologies List.
Line 61: Line 61:
Carmack is an [[atheist]].<ref>
Carmack is an [[atheist]].<ref>
""Having a reasonable grounding in statistics and probability and no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s), the only casino game that interests me is blackjack," he wrote in a .plan file." - John D. Carmack, David Kushner, ''Masters of Doom: How two guys created an Empire and transformed Pop Culture'' (2003).</ref>
""Having a reasonable grounding in statistics and probability and no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s), the only casino game that interests me is blackjack," he wrote in a .plan file." - John D. Carmack, David Kushner, ''Masters of Doom: How two guys created an Empire and transformed Pop Culture'' (2003).</ref>

Carmack supported the 2012 presidential campaign of [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Ron Paul]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Page by Page Report Display (Page 5052 of 7433)|url=http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?12951516414|publisher=[[Federal Election Commission]]|accessdate=13 March 2014}}</ref>


==Recognition==
==Recognition==

Revision as of 20:00, 13 March 2014

For other people named John Carmack, see John Carmack (disambiguation).
John D. Carmack
Carmack at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
Carmack at the 2010 GDC
Born (1970-08-20) August 20, 1970 (age 54)
Roeland Park, Kansas
Occupation(s)CTO, Oculus VR, Inc.[1]
Founder, Armadillo Aerospace
Known forWolfenstein 3D, Doom
SpouseKatherine Anna Kang
Children2

John D. Carmack (born August 20, 1970) is an American game programmer and the co-founder of id Software. Carmack was the lead programmer of the id video games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Rage and their sequels. Carmack is best known for his innovations in 3D graphics, and is also a rocketry enthusiast and the founder and lead engineer of Armadillo Aerospace. In August 2013, Carmack took the position of CTO at Oculus VR.[2]

Biography

Early life

Carmack, son of local television news reporter Stan Carmack, grew up in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area where he became interested in computers at an early age. He attended Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas and Raytown South High School in nearby Raytown, Missouri.

As reported in David Kushner's Masters of Doom, "when Carmack was 14, he broke into a school to help a group of kids steal Apple II computers, but during the attempted break-in one of the kids set off the silent alarm. John was arrested, and sent for psychiatric evaluation (the report mentions 'no empathy for other human beings'). Carmack was then sentenced to a year in a juvenile home."[3] When he was asked "if you had not been caught, would you consider doing it again?" he answered "yes, probably." However, when the therapist presented this evaluation he neglected to include "if you had not been caught" in his statement.[4]

He attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City for two semesters before withdrawing to work as a freelance programmer.

Career

Softdisk, a computer company in Shreveport, Louisiana, hired Carmack to work on Softdisk G-S (an Apple IIGS publication), introducing him to John Romero and other future key members of id Software such as Adrian Carmack (not related). Later, this team would be placed by Softdisk in charge of a new, but short-lived, bi-monthly game subscription product called Gamer's Edge for the IBM PC (DOS) platform. In 1990, while still at Softdisk, Carmack, Romero, and others created the first of the Commander Keen games, a series which was published by Apogee Software, under the shareware distribution model, from 1991 onwards. Afterwards, Carmack left Softdisk to co-found id Software.

Carmack has pioneered or popularized the use of many techniques in computer graphics, including "adaptive tile refresh" for Commander Keen, raycasting for Hovertank 3-D, Catacomb 3-D, and Wolfenstein 3-D, binary space partitioning which Doom became the first game to use, surface caching which he invented for Quake, Carmack's Reverse (formally known as z-fail stencil shadows) which he devised for Doom 3, and MegaTexture technology, first used in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

Carmack's engines have also been licensed for use in other influential first-person shooters such as Half-Life, Call of Duty and Medal of Honor. In 2007, when Carmack was on vacation with his wife, he ended up playing some games on his cellphone, and decided he was going to make a "good" mobile game.[5][6]

On August 7, 2013, Carmack joined Oculus VR as their CTO. On November 22, 2013 he resigned from id Software to work full time at Oculus VR.[1][7] Carmack's reason for leaving id was because ZeniMax Media didn't want to support Oculus Rift.[8]

Technologies

Armadillo Aerospace

Main article: Armadillo Aerospace
Carmack during the 2005 X PRIZE Cup in Las Cruces and Alamogordo, New Mexico

Around 2000, Carmack became interested in rocketry, a hobby of his youth. Reviewing how much money he was spending on customizing Ferraris,[citation needed] Carmack realized he could do significant work in rocketry and aerospace. He began by giving financial support to a few local amateur groups before starting Armadillo Aerospace. Carmack taught himself aerospace engineering and is the lead engineer of the company. Since then, he has made steady progress toward his goals of suborbital space flight and eventual orbital vehicles. In October 2008, Armadillo Aerospace competed in a NASA contest known as the Lunar Lander Challenge, winning first place in the Level 1 competition along with $350,000. In September 2009, they completed Level 2 and were awarded $500,000.[9][10][11]

Free software

Carmack is a well-known advocate of open source software, and has repeatedly voiced his opposition to software patents, which he equates to "mugging someone".[12] He has also contributed to open source projects, such as starting the initial port of the X Window System to Mac OS X Server and working to improve the OpenGL drivers for Linux through the Utah GLX project.

Carmack released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D in 1995 and the Doom source code in 1997. When the source code to Quake was leaked and circulated among the Quake community underground in 1996, a programmer unaffiliated with id Software used it to port Quake to Linux, and subsequently sent the patches to Carmack. Instead of pursuing legal action, id Software, at Carmack's behest, used the patches as the foundation for a company-sanctioned Linux port.[citation needed] Id Software has since publicly released the source code to Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3 and most recently Doom 3 (including, later, the BFG Edition), all under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Doom source code was also re-released under the GPL in 1999. The id Tech 4 engine, more commonly known as the "Doom 3 engine", has also been released as open source under the GPL.[13]

Carmack is also noted for his generous contributions to charities and gaming communities. Some of the recipients of Carmack's charitable contributions include his former high school, promoters of open source software, opponents of software patents, and game enthusiasts. In 1997, he gave away one of his Ferraris (a 328 model) as a prize to Dennis Fong, the winner of the Quake tournament "Red Annihilation".[14]

Personal life and philosophy

Carmack met his wife Katherine Anna Kang at QuakeCon 1997 when she visited id's offices. As a bet, Kang challenged Carmack to sponsor the first All Female Quake Tournament if she was able to produce a significant number of participants. Carmack and Kang married in January 2000 and had a son in 2004. Carmack has a blog last updated in 2006 (previously a .plan), an active Twitter account, and also occasionally posts comments to Slashdot.

As a game developer, Carmack stands apart from many of his contemporaries by avoiding commitment to a final release date for any game he is developing. Instead, when asked for a release date on a new title, Carmack will usually reply that the game will be released "when it's done."[15] Employees at Apogee, in their past years the publishers of games by id Software, adopted this business practice as well.[16] Other game developers, such as Blizzard Entertainment and Valve, have made similar statements.[17]

Carmack is an atheist.[18]

Carmack supported the 2012 presidential campaign of Republican Ron Paul.[19]

Recognition

Date Award Description
1996 Named among the most influential people in computer gaming of the year and of all time #1 and #2 in GameSpots lists.[20][21]
1997 Named among the most influential people of all time #7 in Computer Gaming World list, for game design.[22]
1999 Named among the 50 most influential people in technology #10 in Time's list.[23]
2001-03 Award for community contribution for the Quake 3 engine Used in 12 games. Bestowed at 2001 Game Developer's Conference Award Ceremony.
2001-03-22 Inducted into Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame The fourth person to be inducted, an honor bestowed upon those who have made revolutionary and innovative achievements in the video and computer game industry.
2002 Named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 Included as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[24]
2003 One subject of book Masters of Doom Masters of Doom is a chronicle of id Software and its founders.
2005 Name in film The film Doom featured a character named Dr. Carmack, in recognition of Carmack who co-created the original game.
2006-03 Added to the Walk of Game Walk of Game is an event that recognizes the developers and games with the most impact on the industry.[25]
2007-01 Awarded 2 Emmy Awards Carmack and id Software were awarded with two Emmy Awards. The first was Science, Engineering & Technology for Broadcast Television, which includes broadcast, cable and satellite distribution. The second was for Science, Engineering and Technology for Broadband and Personal Television, encompassing interactive television, gaming technology, and for the first time, the Internet, cell phones, private networks, and personal media players. Id Software is the very first independent game developer to be awarded an Emmy since the Academy began honoring technology innovation in 1948.[26]
2007-09 Television appearance Appeared on Discovery Channel Canada Daily Planet featuring his rocket designs along with the Armadillo Aerospace team.
2008 Honored Carmack was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Quake's pioneering role of user modifiability.[27] He is the only game programmer ever honored twice by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, having been given an Emmy Award in 2007 for his creation of the 3D technology that underlies modern shooter video games.[citation needed] Along with Don Daglow of Stormfront Studios and Mike Morhaime of Blizzard Entertainment, Carmack is one of only three game developers to accept awards at both the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive Achievement Awards.[citation needed]
2008-10 Won X-Prize Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace won the $350,000 Level One X-Prize Lunar Lander Challenge.[28]
2010-13 Lifetime Achievement Award Was awarded the Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement award for his work.[29]

Games

Titles are listed below in reverse chronological order.

Date of release Title Developer Publisher Credited for
TBA Doom 4 id Software Bethesda Softworks technical director, engine programmer, developer
TBA 2014 The Evil Within Tango Gameworks Bethesda Softworks engine creator, engine programmer
October 16, 2012 Doom 3 BFG Edition id Software Bethesda Softworks technical director, engine programmer, developer
October 4, 2011[30] Rage id Software Bethesda Softworks technical director, engine programmer, developer
August 18, 2009 Wolfenstein Raven Software Activision Blizzard engine programmer
September 28, 2007 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Splash Damage Activision programming
May 1, 2006 Orcs & Elves Fountainhead Entertainment Electronic Arts producer/programmer/writer
October 18, 2005 Quake 4 Raven Software Activision, Bethesda Softworks (republished 2012) technical director
September 13, 2005 Doom RPG Fountainhead Entertainment id Software producer/programmer
April 3, 2005 Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil Nerve Software Activision technical director
August 3, 2004 Doom 3 id Software Activision technical director
November 19, 2001 Return to Castle Wolfenstein id Software Activision technical director
December 15, 2000 Quake III: Team Arena id Software Activision programming
December 2, 1999 Quake III Arena id Software Activision programming
December 9, 1997 Quake II id Software Activision programming
March 31, 1997 Doom 64 Midway Games Midway Games programming
June 22, 1996 Quake id Software id Software programming
May 31, 1996 Strife Rogue Entertainment Velocity engine programmer
October 30, 1995 Hexen: Beyond Heretic Raven Software id Software 3D engine
1996 Final Doom id Software GT Interactive programming
December 23, 1994 Heretic Raven Software id Software engine programmer
October 10, 1994 Doom II: Hell on Earth id Software GT Interactive programming
December 10, 1993 Doom id Software id Software programming
1993 Shadowcaster Raven Software Origin Systems 3D engine
September 18, 1992 Spear of Destiny id Software FormGen software engineer
May 5, 1992 Wolfenstein 3D id Software Apogee Software programming
1991 Catacomb 3-D id Software Softdisk programming
1991 Commander Keen: Aliens Ate My Babysitter! id Software FormGen programming
December 15, 1991 Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy! id Software Apogee Software programming
1991 Commander Keen: Keen Dreams id Software Softdisk programming
1991 Shadow Knights id Software Softdisk design/programming
1991 Rescue Rover 2 id Software Softdisk programmer
1991 Rescue Rover id Software Softdisk programmer
1991 Hovertank 3D id Software Softdisk programming
1991 Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion id Software Softdisk programming
December 14, 1990 "Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons" id Software Apogee Software programming
1990 Slordax: The Unknown Enemy Softdisk Softdisk programming
1990 Catacomb II Softdisk Softdisk developer
1990 Catacomb Softdisk Softdisk programmer
1990 Dark Designs II: Closing the Gate Softdisk Softdisk programmer/designer
1990 Dark Designs: Grelminar's Staff John Carmack Softdisk developer
1990 Tennis John Carmack Softdisk developer
1990 Wraith: The Devil's Demise John Carmack Nite Owl Productions developer
1989 Shadowforge John Carmack Nite Owl Productions developer

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/22/5134500/id-software-founder-john-carmack-resigns
  2. ^ "John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO". oculusvr. Oculus VR. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  3. ^ "John Carmack Answers - Slashdot". Games.slashdot.org. 1999-10-15. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  4. ^ "'Civilization' and Its Contents". The Weekly Standard. 2007-02-26. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  5. ^ Kang, Anna (October 18, 2007). "Q&A: Fountainhead's Kang Talks Orcs & Elves DS, Wii Possibilities"Template:Inconsistent citations{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  6. ^ Snider, Mike (18 July 2007). "Q&A with id Software's Kevin Cloud and Steve Nix". USA Today.
  7. ^ John Carmack Leaves id Software To Focus On The Oculus Virtual Reality Headset
  8. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (5 February 2014). "Why John Carmack quit id Software". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  9. ^ Michaels, Patrick (September 14, 2009). "Rocket Men From Mesquite's Armadillo Aerospace Are in Line For $1 Million X Prize". Dallas Observer. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  10. ^ "International Space Fellowship". Spacefellowship.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  11. ^ "Lunar lander qualifies for prize - Cosmic Log". Cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  12. ^ "Are Video Game Patents Next?". Slashdot. 2005-06-01. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  13. ^ "TTimo/doom3.gpl · GitHub". Github.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  14. ^ "Dennis Fong | CrunchBase Profile". Crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  15. ^ "GameSpy: John Carmack: QuakeCon 2008 Keynote Highlights - Page 6". Pc.gamespy.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  16. ^ "DNF Dallas Business Journal Article, 2008, and stuff - Page 4 - 3D Realms Forums". Forums.3drealms.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  17. ^ GamePro Staff (2006-08-29). "GamePro Q&A: Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan on The Burning Crusade". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2009-01-14. Retrieved 2006-09-30.
  18. ^ ""Having a reasonable grounding in statistics and probability and no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s), the only casino game that interests me is blackjack," he wrote in a .plan file." - John D. Carmack, David Kushner, Masters of Doom: How two guys created an Empire and transformed Pop Culture (2003).
  19. ^ "Page by Page Report Display (Page 5052 of 7433)". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  20. ^ "GameSpot - /features/15most/html/mi96_01.html". Liveweb.archive.org. Retrieved 2012-04-12.
  21. ^ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2005-02-06. Archived from the original on 2005-02-06. Retrieved 2012-04-12. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  22. ^ CGW 159: The Most Influential People of All Time
  23. ^ Time Digital 50[dead link] from Time
  24. ^ "2002 Young Innovators Under 35". Technology Review. 2002. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
  25. ^ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2009-02-26. Archived from the original on 2009-02-26. Retrieved 2012-11-27. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  26. ^ "National Television Academy Announces Emmy Winning Achievements: Honors Bestowed at 58th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards" (PDF). Emmyonline.org. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
  27. ^ Contact Brian Ashcraft: Comment (2008-01-08). "2008 Tech Emmy Winners". Kotaku.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  28. ^ "Armadillo Wins Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1, Crashes On 2". Gizmodo.com. 2008-10-27. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  29. ^ "2010 Game Developers Choice Awards to Honor John Carmack of id Software With... - SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/". Prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  30. ^ "Rage - PC". IGN. Retrieved 26 May 2013.

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to John D. Carmack.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Carmack&oldid=599480270"